# civil-partnerships - Thursday 13 January, 2011

CIVIL PARTNERSHIPS between same-sex couples registered overseas are officially recognised as being valid under Irish law from today, under the terms of the Civil Partnership Act signed into law last year. As a result, any couple with a same-sex partnership registered in certain overseas territories can claim the same tax and inheritance rights as male-female couples. The first Irish-performed civil partnership ceremonies will begin in April, as couples are required to give three months’ notice of similar partnerships in Ireland.

# civil-partnerships - Sunday 22 August, 2010

SAME SEX COUPLES and their supporters who feel that the Civil Partnership Bill does not go far enough towards giving equal rights to all Irish citizens will march through Dublin today.

The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender campaign group, Noise, have organised the march, which will leave from Dublin City Hall and continue to the Department of Justice in the city centre.

The March for Marriage protest will kick off at 2pm.

Although the Civil Partnership Bill, which was signed into law last month, is the first legal recognition of civil right within same-sex partnerships many feel that it still discriminates between Irish citizens on the basis of their sexuality.

The bill legal provides benefits in the areas of property, social welfare, and tax to same-sex couples; however Noise calls on LGBT people “not to settle for half-measures” and push for full marriage rights.

Saying on its website that the Civil Partnership Bill “makes us second class citizens”, the group outlines their objections to the legislation, focusing on the rights of children with same-sex parents. Noise says that the bill:

Offers no way for parents to create protected legal bonds with each other as parents or with their children

Denies parents the right to make educational and medical decisions regarding their children

Denies children of LGBT parents the right to inherit from their parents

# civil-partnerships - Thursday 5 August, 2010

AN AMERICAN JUDGE has ruled California’s ban on same-sex marriage illegal – raising the possibility of a Supreme Court hearing to determine whether any ban on gay marriage is unconstitutional.

Judge Vaughn R Walker, the chief judge of the Federal District Court in San Francisco, ruled that Proposition 8 – the measure which outlawed gay marriage in the state, approved by referendum in 2008 – “cannot withstand any level of scrutiny under the Equal Protection Clause” of the federal Constitution.

“Excluding same-sex couples from marriage is simply not rationally related to a legitimate state interest,” he ruled.

However, Walker placed an immediate stay on his own ruling, freezing it until a separate hearing determines whether to once again allow same-sex marriages while his ruling is appealed.

Video (http://www.youtube.com/watch=_nSo43j3s1U&t=)

The ruling will now be appealed to the local branch of the national court of appeals, but commentators anticipate that the matter will ultimately come before the Supreme Court itself which would ultimately rule on whether all bans on gay marriage are unconstitutional.

The Equal Protection Clause provides that “no state shall [...] deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”

“Being gay is about forming an adult family relationship with a person of a same sex,” said gay rights activist Jennifer Pizer, “so denying us equality within the family system is to deny respect for the essence of who we are as gay people.”

Pastor Jim Garlow, however, who had been an outspoken proponent of the ban, said congregations across America ‘would fast and pray for the ban to be restored.’

Other opponents argued that the Constitutional reference to ‘We the People’ would mean the court would acknowledge the fact that the public had twice voted against gay marriage – at Proposition 8 and also in 2000, when voters explicitly defined marriage as between “a man and a woman”.

The controversial proposition 8 was passed in November 2008 – on the same day that Barack Obama was elected president – by 52% of voters, which barred any future gay marriages, but did not rule earlier gay marriages illegal.

# civil-partnerships - Monday 19 July, 2010

PRESIDENT MARY MCALEESE has signed the Civil Partnership Bill into law this morning, according to the Department of Justice. The enactment of the bill – now an Act – dashes hopes of the bill’s opponents, but means the Act’s constitutionality may still be appealed.

# civil-partnerships - Sunday 18 July, 2010

PROTESTORS HAVE CONVENED outside Áras an Úachtaráin this afternoon in an effort to convince President Mary McAleese not to sign the Civil Partnership Bill into law. McAleese must either sign the Bill before Wednesday or refer it to the Supreme Court to test its constitutionality.

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